We shared the pillow in my bedroom. I was facing the north side and she was facing the east side, so when viewed from above, we looked like an over stretched letter 'V'.
"Lollipop?" she asked with one already in her mouth.
"Thanks. I'm good".
She moved her hand to adjust her hair and it hit my face and I let out an involuntary "Ow".
"Oops, sorry" she said and she started giggling.
The way she was giggling with lollipop in her mouth made me giggle too. We laid there giggling for a long time.
She became quiet after some time, and then she started playing with her hair. "What next?" I asked turning to look at her face.
She took the lollipop out of her mouth, twisted it in her hand and said after a pause "We wait".
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Sarah Dominic and I became friends in college, though we knew each other in school. In school, although we were in the same class we were both indifferent to each other as were immersed in our world. In college, we happened to be the ones who knew each other initially and that kind of pulled our respective universes together.
"I want to buy some books, coming?" she asked me one day after our college has ended.
"I can't. I do not have my bike with me right now" I said and reminded her that how my bike got stolen a few weeks ago.
"No problem. I'll give you a ride" she said and we used her scooty to go to the 32nd book fair organized in YMCA ground, Nandanam.
She bought 7 books and me none. My home was in West Mambalam. She took South Boag road and when we were in Pondy Bazaar, she slowed down her vehicle. I already knew what she was going to do and I tried to stop her "Sarah no, no one is bothered, keep driving".
She didn't listen. I was not even sure she heard me. She parked the vehicle near an over-flowing smelly dustbin, and then she picked a stone on the road threw it at the guy who was beating a woman who seemed to be his wife. "OI!! ARIVU ILLA? (DON'T YOU HAVE ANY BRAIN?)" Sarah screamed at the guy. He stopped beating his wife and looked surprised both by the pain from the place where the stone had hit his head and by the new voice.
"Sarah, are you mad?" I could feel that her body was tense with adrenaline and it suddenly became super heavy when I tried to pull her away from the scene.
"ROAD LA IPDI ORU PONNA POTTU ADIKARA VEKKAMA ILLA? (YOU ARE BEATING A WOMEN IN ROAD, AREN'T YOU ASHAMED?)" she screamed again and by this time half of the street was gathered around the place where this whole drama was unfurling.
The guy was drunk; we could see it from his body language. "IDHU EN PONDATTI, NAAN ENNA VENALUM PANNUVEN, IDHA KEKA VANDHA NEE YAARU DI? (THIS IS MY WIFE, I WOULD DO ANYTHINGTO HER WHAT I SEEM FIT. WHO ARE YOU TO QUESTION THIS?) was the reply we got.
Upon hearing this, Sarah picked up another stone and she threw at him and this time, it hit him in his stomach. The drunken guy's response was a string of bad words followed by rude hand gestures. And that was the time when my knuckles amde contact with his nose and it started bleeding immediately. A few seconds later his wife was trying to break us apart when Sarah stood rooted to the spot.
"We should do this together more often" Sarah grinned looking at my fractured hand next day in college.
"You are fucking mad Sarah!! Don't ever do such things again! Lucky my dad knew the Assistant Commissioner, otherwise I would have ended up in jail because of you" I fumed.
She looked at me for a few seconds "I think I am starting to like you" she smiled and squeezed what was left of my fractured hand.
I let out a howl of pain.
----
Needless to say, I married Sarah Dominic at the beautiful St. Thomas church four years after our college ended.
"Why did you marry me?" Sarah asked me when were lounging in my house terrace two days after our marriage.
I pulled her closer and my put my arms around her neck and I said "Because you are a mad person with a good heart".
She laughed and asked "If I continue to keep being mad?".
"Divorce" I said and kissed her cheek.
----
When Sarah was 30, I got promoted to the status of father when I held a beautiful baby in my hand.
"Oh, I just can't stop looking at her feet. They are so pretty" was the first thing she said when I met after she had gained consciousness from the surgery and immediately started crying.
"Shhh. It is okay. She is healthy. And that is what that counts. Yes her feet are pretty too. I want to eat them" I said and tried to cuddle my wife.
"Eat her? Eat our baby?" she said and cried even more.
I laughed and I kissed her forehead and said "I can't believe that you are a mom already".
-----
When Anita grew up, we grew along with her. I mean, I grew along with her, of course. I was not sure about Sarah though.
When Anita was getting married, I saw Sarah crying the same way I saw her crying when I held Anita in my hand for the first time.
"Are you gonna be alright?" I asked Sarah the night when Anita left for her new home. Her eyes were starting to become puffy from crying.
"I don't know" she mumbled and started shedding fresh tears again.
I started laughing and she came and hugged me and said "My mom would have cried the same way when I left her home na?".
I hugged her back and said "You see the basic difference between you and Anita is that, people would miss Anita when she is gone".
My wife choked midway between laughing and crying and hit me in my stomach.
----
"I am having pain in my pelvis" announced Sarah one day when I returned home from work. "I'm afraid that it would be cancer, I looked up the symptoms on the internet".
"What have I told you? Don't look up medical stuff on the internet. It creates a nocebo effect" I scolded her.
"No. I'm serious".
I took her to the doctor. Sarah underwent a handful of med tests. The doctor said she wouldn't want to say anything to us unless and until she was 100% sure.
On the way back home, I held her hand in auto when she was resting her head on my shoulder.
"Are you panicking?" she asked.
I didn't how to reply to this. I looked at her and asked "Are you?".
"I don't know how to describe what I'm feeling" she replied.
My head started to hurt. "Do you want anything?" I asked.
"Can you get me some lollipop? The jelly ones" she said.
I looked at her, she smiled and I laughed and said "Of course. Anything else?".
"I just want to go and lie in our bed and have those lollipops".
